Mode of delivery: - INQUIRY INTO THE FINANCIAL SERVICES REGULATORY FRAMEWORK IN RELATION TO FINANCIAL ABUSE IN

Table of Contents

• INQUIRY INTO THE FINANCIAL SERVICES REGULATORY FRAMEWORK IN RELATION TO FINANCIAL ABUSE IN AUSTRALIA 1
• The work of Relationships Australia 1
•  served more than 140,000 clients across more than 100 locations and 97 outreach locations 1
•  employed 2,340 staff to offer more than 320 unique services/programs 1
•  launched more than 25 new programs 1
•  participated in over 29 research projects, and 1
•  individual, couples, and family counselling 1
•  family law counselling, mediation and dispute resolution, and post-separation services for parents and children 2
•  Children’s Contact Services (services which provide supervised contact and changeovers for high risk families) 2
•  Specialised Family Violence Services 2
•  a range of tailored services for older Australians, including senior relationship services, elder mediation, elder abuse case management and mediation, social connection services and mental health services in residential aged care on behalf of Prima... 2
•  therapeutic and case management services to applicants for Redress Support Services, Forgotten Australians, Forced Adoption Support Services, Intercountry Adoptee Family Support Service, and Post Adoption Support Services 2
•  services designed for men, including programs to support parenting capacities and resources, Men’s Behaviour Change Programs, and tailored programs such as the Respectful Relationships Program for Indigenous clients 2
•  gambling help services 2
•  alcohol and other drugs services 2
•  employee assistance programs 2
•  Headspace (youth mental health) services 2
•  mental health (including suicide prevention) services and programs, and 2
•  Family Mental Health Support Services. 2
•  1.7 million Australians (or 8.8%) feel unsafe disagreeing with their most important person, and 2
•  59% of people who felt unsafe disagreeing with their important person were aged 55 years or more. 2
• Recommendations 2
• Term of Reference 1 Financial abuse of older people 3
•  developing products and services to support financial literacy among older clients, including First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse clients 4
•  developing products and services to build confidence among older people in being able to access and use emerging technologies to manage their finances 4
•  identify and rapidly respond to suspected financial and economic abuse of older people (including abuse occurring as part of a family dynamic, or by carers, as well as scams). 4
• Term of Reference 1 Financial and economic abuse of intimate partners 4
• Term of Reference 1 Recommendations applicable to both financial abuse of older people and of intimate partners 4
•  prevalence and demographics of financial abuse within intergenerational and intimate partner relationships (and any association between financial abuse in these kinds of relationships) 5
•  links between financial abuse and technology-facilitated abuse 5
•  mapping and measuring strategies to prevent, disrupt and remedy financial abuse, and 5
•  effective services tailored for those who are abused and perpetrators 5
•  the nature and prevalence of abuse and neglect of older people living in institutional settings as well as in the community, that: 5
• o includes people with dementia or other cognitive impairment3F 5
• o identifies patterns of co-occurring abuse,4F 5
• o differentiates between sub-types of abuse5F 5
• o differentiates between different kinds of perpetrator (eg family members,6F visitors, formal or informal carers, coercive controlling perpetrators) 5
• o takes into account cultural factors that may contribute to recognition, or masking, of abuse of older people, and 5
• o identifies protective and risk factors both for older people and for people who are at risk of becoming perpetrators.7F 5
•  de-mystifying financial language 6
•  financial savings strategies (eg pay yourself first) 6
•  learning about credit, debt, superannuation etc 6
•  empowering girls to be confident in thinking about and using financial products and services, and 6
•  learning about wills, enduring documents, and supported decision-making. 6
•  people experiencing the impacts (including cognitive impacts) of trauma 6
•  people experiencing ANOP and IPV/DFV 6
•  culturally safe practices, and 6
•  other services, including relationship and therapeutic services and legal services. 6
• Term of Reference 2 – Insurance Contracts Act 1984 6
• Term of Reference 2 Legislation and statutory instruments for superannuation 6
•  be awarded an amount from their perpetrator’s ‘additional’ contributions for the purposes of satisfying unpaid compensation orders, as proposed in relation to victim survivors of child sexual abuse in Treasury’s 2023 paper,8F and 6
•  submit a superannuation information request to the appropriate court which could then request that the ATO discloses specific information regarding the offender’s or their spouse’s superannuation accounts. 6
• Framing Principles for Submission 7
• Principle 1 - Commitment to human rights 7
• Principle 2 – Accessible and inclusive public institutions, regulation and service delivery 8
• Cultural safety and responsiveness 9
• Accessible regulatory frameworks 9
•  reducing complexity of the law and supporting systems and processes 9
•  reducing fragmentation, and 9
•  high quality and evidence-based regulation, accompanied by robust and timely accountability mechanisms. 9
• Fragmentation 9
• Geographic equity 10
• Principle 3 – An expanded understanding of diverse ways of being and knowing 10
• Principle 4 – An expanded understanding of valued and valuable work 11
• Responses to Terms of Reference 12
• Term of Reference 1 Prevalence and impact of financial abuse 12
• Financial abuse of older people 12
• Powers of attorney 14
• Service responses to intergenerational financial abuse 15
•  adult children seeking to control assets (inheritance impatience, inheritance conservation) 15
•  adult children urging parent/s to sell the marital home because it’s ‘too big, too hard to care for’; move in with us; put money into the adult child’s business/mortgage; not on title; subsequently made to leave; often moved out of old area with exi... 15
•  adult children using ongoing contact with grandchildren as a reward or precondition for financial support42F 15
•  convincing themselves that ‘mum would want me to have this money’ (for petrol, for own groceries, for children; expensive and unprecedented presents), and 15
•  humbugging.43F 15
•  people experiencing the impacts (including cognitive impacts) of trauma 17
•  people experiencing DFV and ANOP 17
•  culturally safe practices, and 17
•  other services, including relationship and therapeutic services and legal services. 17
•  the possibilities that families are able to confidently support a person’s exercise of autonomy and agency 17
•  the quality of the support that family members can give, and 17
•  the opportunities for durable change in family dynamics.45F 17
• Financial abuse of intimate partners 17
•  believe that women who have worked part time, or been stay at home parents, and done most of the parenting, have not contributed to the family or to the financial assets; generally, men have control of these 18
•  undervalue the cost of raising children 18
•  believe that child support is used for the woman’s expenses; alternatively or in addition, child support is withheld as a punitive measure or bargaining tool50F 18
•  believe women use unfounded allegations of DFV to gain advantage in property disputes, and 18
•  subscribe to the view that ‘his money is his money; her money is ours’. 18
•  activities, movement, freedom and time 18
•  intimacy, and 18
•  precise amount of money to which a victim survivor has access for grocery shopping, school supplies, clothing for herself and children; it is not uncommon for victim survivors to have to ask for money for sanitary products, medications, cosmetics. 18
•  it is common for a woman to hold firm in FDR on parenting if children’s safety is at stake, but feels less confident to protect her financial position 18
•  in couples who don’t share financial information during the relationship or who have distinct and gendered roles in the relationship - women may not be in a position to have an understanding or access to information about, family assets and liabilit... 18
•  if abuser has had control of assets during the relationship, the victim can’t afford advice and is often locked out of legal aid (tests can take into account income and assets to which the victim does not, in fact, have access or can control) 19
•  wastage and incurring debt can further imperil a victim survivor’s financial recovery (Relationships Australia has supported amendments to the Family Law Act to specify these kinds of conduct as family violence) 19
•  non-disclosure of income/assets accrued through participation in the cash economy is a significant issue in the family law and child support contexts and can be part of broader perpetration of financial abuse; payee clients, because of non-disclosur... 19
•  joint debts are still a problem (with violent partner often trashing assets that are secured, with lender then turning to victim to make good). A common scenario involves a primary borrower who is the higher income earner and the perpetrator, and a... 19
•  rural/regional/remote perspective (particular considerations around primary producers). 19
• Identifying the person most in need of protection 19
• Prevention of financial abuse within intergenerational and intimate partner relationships – education, awareness and capacity building 19
•  de-mystifying financial language 19
•  financial savings strategies (eg pay yourself first) 19
•  learning about credit, debt, superannuation etc 19
•  empowering girls to be confident in thinking about and using financial products and services, and 19
•  learning about wills, enduring documents, and supported decision-making. 19
•  physical location (including urban and suburban ‘black spots’) 20
•  cost 20
•  apprehensions and lack of confidence around data security and the prevalence of scam activity, and 20
•  technical expertise and/or the ability to access that.52F 20
• Term of Reference 2 The effectiveness of existing legislation, common law, and regulatory arrangements that govern the ability of financial institutions to prevent and respond to financial abuse… 20
• …(d) the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 20
• (e) legislation and statutory instruments for superannuation 21
• Accordingly, Relationships Australia recommends that the Australian Government recognise the long-term effects of financial abuse by allowing victim survivors of domestic and family violence, and victim survivors of ANOP, to: 21
• a. be awarded an amount from their perpetrator’s ‘additional’ contributions for the purposes of satisfying unpaid compensation orders, as proposed in relation to victim survivors of child sexual abuse in Treasury’s 2023 paper,53F and 21
• b. submit a superannuation information request to the appropriate court which could then request that the ATO discloses specific information regarding the offender’s or their spouse’s superannuation accounts. 21
• (f) state and territory laws and regulations 21
• As noted above, harmonisation of laws relating to enduring powers of attorney has languished on the ministerial council agenda for over two decades without substantive progress being made by governments.54F Relationships Australia most recently made... 21
• Having regard to the vital interest of the banking, superannuation and insurance sectors in progress on enduring instruments, we recommend that state and territory governments refer to the Commonwealth the power to make laws on enduring instruments, a... 22
• Term of Reference 5 The role of government agencies in preventing and responding to financial abuse 22
• Term of Reference 6 The funding and operation of relevant advisory and advocacy bodies 22
• Conclusion 23
• References 24